TEAM REVEAL: Damo

I’m a man of few words, so I’m not going to give a big long monologue explaining my team.

DEFENCE

RORY LAIRD – I think he’s underpriced, even if only slightly. Had a down year, by his standards, in 2019 and I’d be surprised if he continues his backwards slide. A good chance to re-enter the top 6 grouping of defenders again.

LUKE RYAN – The new Freo game plan looks like it will benefit Luke Ryan even more than it already did. More kicking, more marking, more points. Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

SAM DOCHERTY – His first Marsh game worried me, but didn’t completely deter me. He did spend some time out of my team as I weighed up my options but the second pre-season game vs Brisbane laid to rest all the fears I had.

JOHN NOBLE – Only need to average 75 to max out at 407k, and an almost 200k profit from his starting price is a perfect scenario.

BRANDON ZERK-THATCHER – Pretty much ditto to Noble, but I don’t think he’ll average much higher than 60, which would still give us about a 150k profit to max out at about 350k.

HAYDEN YOUNG – Michael Walters pretty much let it slip that Hayden Young would come in and play that running half back role in the absence of Stephen Hill. Until he’s not named, he’s in my team.

Bench:

TOBE WATSON – Looks to have forced his way into the Freo best 22, especially while they have some injury worries. Only modest scores in the Marsh series, averaging 52, but a warm body is a warm body.

BAILEY WILLIAMS – Appears to be in the box seat to secure the role as Nic Naitanui’s right hand man, won’t score amazingly as a 2nd year ruckmen but his job security seems decent as it looks like he’ll technically be straight back in after recovering from an injury concern.

MIDFIELD

JACK MACRAE – Jack Macrae is good at football, not sure what else you want me to say here?

LACHIE NEALE – Lachie Neale scored 118 on the weekend vs Carlton in Marsh two barely even putting the keys in the ignition.

JOSH KELLY – I’m as scared as you are, but I’m excited by the fact that he’s had a full pre-season. Also worth noting that he scored 102SC points in 62% game time in the Bushfire Relief game, and that is hard to ignore. Plus won’t get tagged by Matt de Boer because they’re teammates!

HUGH MCCLUGGAGE – Breakout contender. Looked excellent in both Marsh games and was continuously looked for as an outside option by the rest of the Brisbane mids. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t at least raise his average by 10 points, and a 104 average was good enough for most of us with Brad Crouch last season. I think he’ll average more than that though.

RUCK

FORWARDS

DUSTIN MARTIN – He’ll have his down patch at some point that will annoy the hell out of us, but he’ll challenge Whitfield for the top forward of 2020.

ANDREW BRAYSHAW – #BrayshawBreakout

DEVON SMITH – Will at least make money even if he doesn’t reach the heights of 2018 when he averaged 98, I think he’ll end up being a keeper though.

JACK STEVEN – A bit like Devon Smith. I wrote both these players off early season but given the current rookie landscape, even if Stuv doesn’t reach his usual heights he’ll still make some good money. I’m more confident in Devon Smith than I am in Jack Steven though.

JARROD BRANDER – Looks like he’s going to do his best to make himself comfortable on one of the wings for West Coast.

CURTIS TAYLOR – A round 1 bolter after his Marsh 2 performance.

Bench:

DARCY CAMERON – Personally think Cameron will play ahead of Cox, but that remains to be seen.

MAX KING – He’ll score terribly, but he’ll play every week if he’s fit and Saints have 8 of their first 11 games at Marvel Stadium.

35 Comments

TBone_9
· 14/03/2020 at 12:26

Really like the team Damo! Makes sense to me on every line. Mccluggage good breakout pick, with that extra 70k itb are you tempted at all to select Cogs instead of him? Or try to find a few more $ to select Oliver?

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 15:36

Honestly having the money available is more important I feel than finding where I can spend it. McCluggage is locked in.

Dukes
· 14/03/2020 at 13:15

Curious to hear your thoughts on your non selections in Cripps and Whitfield. Was is it just a case of you can’t fit them all in?

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 15:35

No Cripps and No Whitfield just purely based on money movement and fitting in within my structure. I think they are both fine selections though.

Patch
· 14/03/2020 at 13:29

Can't fault this team, Damo, it's extremely solid. One of those three mid pricers in the forward line will fail, but I don't know which. However, everyone will have one (or three or five) who does, so you've done stellar work with it.

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 15:37

I see Smith and Steven as fallen premos more than proper midpricers but thanks Patch 🙂

SC_2020
· 14/03/2020 at 14:02

I like it. J Kelly pick is so tempting, can he stay fit? Man if he stays fit he could be no1 mid.

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 15:37

A full season could win him a Brownlow.

Dools
· 14/03/2020 at 16:15

Great reveal Damo…I like it a lot ….Trouser Stretching Stuff.

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 21:11

Thanks Dools

Derek
· 14/03/2020 at 16:43

Ryan instead of Sicily, making me think.

Dann
· 14/03/2020 at 18:08

I want to select Ryan so badly! But I can’t go him over Sicily & I’ve only got the one real premo Def in my structure this team is making me think though.

hedski
· 14/03/2020 at 18:21

The thing holding me back on Ryan is that he has killed me the last 2 years when I had minimal trades left.
Missed the last 4 games last year and the last 2 the year before.
Otherwise I rate him.

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 21:12

Luke Ryan is good! Sicily is also good! They're both good!!

Derek
· 14/03/2020 at 22:03

I can’t tell the Fremantle defenders apart

It it just me, but do they all look a like?

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 22:58

As a fan I can tell them apart, but there might be a case of shared hairdresser or something.

Derek
· 14/03/2020 at 23:33

I miss Zac Dawson greatly

Maverick_
· 14/03/2020 at 17:00

Very VERY similar to mine damo.. so I like this a lot..
just unsure on Steven with Duncan Guthrie & Selwood to come back into the midfield… but I do currently have jack just not sold on him

Dann
· 14/03/2020 at 18:10

Hmm wouldn’t be too concerned Duncan and Guth play very different roles to Steven, Selwood could be an issue but he’s pretty banged up.

Therealsharkmove
· 14/03/2020 at 17:28

Best team of the inner circle so far imo. The bars been set for Patch & Lekdog!
Well, Patch is famous for a left field selection or 2, so it might not look like a great team from the get go….But remember this was the guy who picked Macraes breakout to Uber and copped some stick for it

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 21:09

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder a lot of the time. I've gone for a more traditional structure, but that doesn't mean it's the only way and correct way to build a team.

Thank you for your comment though.

KeenButClueless
· 14/03/2020 at 19:34

Nice team Damo

Are you concerned with your bye structure? At 4-7-3, it feels like a round 13 problem

JR_Damo
· 14/03/2020 at 21:07

Firstly, thank you!

Secondly, I generally find that you can manage your bye structure using trades as the season progresses. So I don't "plan" for them as such, I do keep them in mind however when deciding between certain players.

Not a big fan of the expensive rookies, but do like a good fallen premium, or 5.

KeenButClueless
· 15/03/2020 at 12:27

Hi Derek

I know you hate them, but you might need to bite the bullet on an expensive rookie or two, as I fear that you are looking down the barrel of too many not being selected in Round 1.

AFL site did their projections of each teams best 22, and from that the following rookies you have picked weren’t in the teams

Watson Gould

Robertson Rivers Mahoney Sharp

Conroy

Of those 7, I will be loop, and you might get 2 or 3, but sitting on the cheaper rookies and waiting for them to appear might really slow your cash generation.

A possible way is Sicily to Bradshaw. Bring in BZerk. Budarick to the mid bench for Sharp and Rivers to Green.

Derek
· 15/03/2020 at 13:11

This preseason has always been about rookies.

I have a few other teams, mainly slight variations of this one, some even with Petracca at F2.

Even if a few cheap rookies are named next week, there is the possibility of only playing one or two games. Will need to look a bit deeper into if they are filling a gap until someone is fit.

There are many ways to solve a problem. My answer to the lack of defence rookies was to go deep with Robertson at D5, others are looking at expensive rookies

Of my 11 premiums, Houston is the one I’m not 100% on. He could become Noble and leave me a $300k warchest

Thanks for the feedback mate

How is your A team looking?

KeenButClueless
· 15/03/2020 at 14:36

I have had a fairly typical preseason. My great first draft team has been compromised and compromised to the point that it is at best a B team and almost unrecognisable from where it started.

I have really enjoyed the age analysis, which made it easy to draw lines through Fyfe, Danger and Martin. I focussed a lot on reliability, yet I have Whitfield in my team, because I am more scared of what will happen if he does play a lot of games, rather than whether he will miss. I have hated D1. I have good reasons not to pick any of them, although Laird is starting to look appealing.

I am fatally attracted to a Ruck/Forward swing because it just seems so logical- rucks score more, and you need to have cover if one goes down for a week or two. But in truth, it’s been a virtually wasted pick each year. Last year Lycett nearly made the pick worthwhile, but it meant I didn’t pick Dunkley. This year it’s Ceglar. You have already predicted it will end badly when Big Boy comes back into the ruck. And you are probably right.

I think tagging will be back in 2020, so all our midfield premos will take a hit, and we should be able to buy them cheaper during the season. Even if I am right, doesn’t help too much in framing a side, because you need midfield premos, and trying to predict who will be tagged is a lottery.

So I have a B grade team. Too many mid priced and a few people I don’t want. I have seriously toyed with a full on mid priced team, because at the moment I have 8 premos, 2 fallen premos, and 4 potential breakouts. Plus expensive rookies. So rather than a watered down GNR, maybe full blown mid priced is an option.

I do hundreds of hours in the preseason on my team, but for some reason end up at this point where I look at it and wonder what the hell has all that research and tinkering been for on a team that looks like that!

Good luck for the season Derek. Let’s hope your risky R2 and my fatal attraction to a Ruck/Forward swing pay off!

Derek
· 15/03/2020 at 21:48

i Also was building my team on reliability and age as a factor, but have also ended up with Whitfield and Martin

The lack of clear, standout Uber forwards this year makes me pick both. I know they will both need to be there, even if they are 10 points below what they should do, so may as well get them now.

In the midfield, there is a lot of choice, and to separate the top 8 or 9, criteria is needed. Danger and Fyfe too old, Kelly hasnt played a full season, Dunkley isn’t McCrea

Reliability and the ability to save trades is alway important.

Midpricers who turn into keepers are gold. I took Williams and Brodie from start to finish last season,

JohnDJ59
· 15/03/2020 at 22:53

It's probably a good year to experiment Keen, since the season will most probably be suspended in the end anyway. I would stick with what you have though, we still need a certain amount of premos to start with, I have 8, Laird, Fyfe, Cripps, Dunkley, Titch, Grundy, Gawn, Dusty. 6 midpriced players, Houston, Doc, MacPherson, Brayshaw, Steven, D.Smith. Then a mix of expensive and cheap rookies.

Dice_real
· 15/03/2020 at 01:03

Upgrade Ryan to Lloyd and that side is brilliant Damo

Shake n bake
· 15/03/2020 at 10:20

Who else is thinking the afl will call a holt to the season. Maybe not rd1 but it will happen.

JR_Damo
· 15/03/2020 at 12:23

Looks like they might suspend the season for a few weeks in June/July, what is usually the height of flu season.

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